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  Sketches by Boz: Volume 3 , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 473min

  Queen Victoria... and Prince Albert were married in 1840. Dickens uses this event as an ingenious ploy to salute and promote domestic felicity, advising young ladies upon several examples of the different types of male available as partners. There follows a section describing various married couples from whom the young ladies could possibly learn a lesson. The author then entertains with a tale of Nicholas Tulrumble, newly appointed Mayor of Mudfog, with ideas above his station. Mudfog is modelled on the town of Dickens childhood, Chatham, and he continues, with this backdrop, to regale us with a satirical tale about the first meeting of ‘The British Association for the Advancement of Everything [aka Science]’ supposedly held there. Here his imagination runs riot and the authors huge influence and importance in the evolution of humorous writing is once again confirmed.Fantastic ideas such as using cauliflowers as parachutes, theme parks for dissolute nobleman to indulge their rowdy behaviour, an automaton pickpocket that could be utilised by Her Majesties Government- the only disadvantage being it would soon wear out from overwork ! Redolent with the author’s usual swipes at the establishment and his reforming zeal Volume 3 of the Sketches is a Dickensian treat. ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Peter Joyce. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/assm/000074/bk_assm_000074_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  Secrets of Health from the Indian Kitchen , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 717min

  Did you know that a couple of bananas a day can lower your blood pressure? That 19th-century sailors used to eat potatoes to fight scurvy? That Ayurveda considers rice the perfect healing food? That turmeric could have anti-carcinogenic properties? That urad dal is an aphrodisiac?Ratna Rajaiah takes a walk down memory lane, only to find it redolent with the aromas of her mother’s and grandmother’s kitchens, and lined with the spices and condiments of her youth. Pausing often, she meets old culinary friends – coconuts and chilies, mangoes and jackfruit, ragi and channa dal, ghee. and jaggery, mustard seeds and curry leaves – and introduces us to almost-forgotten joys, like the sight of steaming kanji or the scent of freshly cut ginger. Taking detours, she shares recipes for old favourites (often with a surprising twist!) and reveals delightful slivers of trivia and fascinating nuggets of gastronomic history.Delving deep, she discovers that traditional fare is much more than comfort food (many local ingredients are health-giving and healing too!) and that much of what the West is discovering about herbs and spices has been known to our ancestors for centuries.An unabashed and wonderful ode to the blessings of simple, traditional vegetarian food.PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.  ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Shehnaz Merchant. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/adbl/055450/bk_adbl_055450_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  The Autobiography of My Mother , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 385min

  From the recipient of the 2010 Clifton Fadiman Medal comes an unforgettable novel of one woman's courageous coming of age. Powerful, disturbing, and stirring, Jamaica Kincaid's novel is the deeply charged story of a woman's life on the island of Dominica. Xuela Claudette Richardson, the daughter of a Carib mother and a half-Scottish, half-African father, loses her mother to death the moment she is born and must find her way on her own. Jamaica Kincaid takes us from Xuela's childhood in a home where she can hear the song of the sea to the tin-roofed room where she lives as a schoolgirl in the house of Jack La Batte, who becomes her first lover. Xuela develops a passion for the stevedore Roland, who steals bolts of Irish linen for her from the ships he unloads, but she eventually marries an English doctor, Philip Bailey. Xuela's intensely physical world is redolent of overripe fruit, gentian violet, sulfur, and rain on the road. It seethes with her sorrow, her deep sympathy for those who share her history, her fear of her father, and her desperate loneliness. But underlying all is "the black room of the world" that is Xuela's barrenness and life without a mother. The Autobiography of My Mother is a story of love, fear, loss, and the forging of character, an account of one woman's inexorable evolution, evoked in startling and magical poetry. ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Robin Miles. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/blak/009497/bk_blak_009497_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  Long Way Home: On the Trail of Steinbeck's America , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 538min

  We do not take a trip; a trip takes us, John Steinbeck noted in his 1962 classic, Travels with Charley. In the summer of 2008, Bill Barich stumbled upon a used copy of Travels in Ireland, where he has lived for the past eight years, and it inspired him to explore the mood of the United States as Steinbeck had done almost a half century before. With a hotly contested election looming, and in the shadow of an economic meltdown, Barich set off on a 5,943-mile cross-country drive from New York to his old hometown in San Francisco via Route 50, a road twisting through the American heartland. Long Way Home is the stunning result of his pilgrimage, an illuminating and perceptive portrait of America at a dramatic point in its history. Where Steinbeck returned from the road depressed about the country's soul, Barich - while not uncritical of the narrow-mindedness and incivility of our present culture - finds brightness among the dark and rekindles his belief in the long view, as exemplified by the unbridled optimism of some high school kids in Hutchinson, Kansas, and by the undaunted spirit of an 80-year-old barber he chanced upon in Jefferson City, Missouri. "The world truly does renew itself while we're looking the other way," he observes. From the Eastern Shore of Maryland to the spectacular landscape of Moab, Utah, to Steinbeck's own Salinas Valley, filled with memorable encounters and redolent with history and local color, Long Way Homeis a truthful, inspiring account of the country at a social and political crossroad. "The highway snakes into a tunnel," Barich writes about a stretch of Route 50 in West Virginia, "then erupts into the light with the force of revelation." ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: JJ Write. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/adbl/009707/bk_adbl_009707_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  The Spirit Photographer: A Novel , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 652min

  Boston, 1870.  Photographer Edward Moody runs a booming business capturing the images of the spirits of the departed in his portraits. He lures grieving widows and mourning mothers into his studio with promises of catching the ghosts of their deceased loved ones with his camera.  Despite the whispers around town that Moody is a fraud of the basest kind, no one has been able to expose him, and word of his gift has spread, earning him money, fame, and a growing list of illustrious clients. One day, while developing the negative from a sitting to capture the spirit of the young son of an abolitionist senator, Moody is shocked to see a different spectral figure develop before his eyes. Instead of the staged image of the boy he was expecting, the camera has seemingly captured the spirit of a beautiful young woman. Is it possible that the spirit photographer caught a real ghost?  When Moody recognizes the woman in the photograph as the daughter of an escaped slave he knew long ago, he is compelled to travel from Boston to the Louisiana bayous to resolve their unfinished business - and perhaps save his soul. But more than one person is out to stop him. With dramatic twists and redolent of the mood of the Southern Gothic, The Spirit Photographer conjures the Reconstruction era South, replete with fugitive hunters, voodoo healers, and other dangers lurking in the swamp. Jon Michael Varese's deftly plotted first novel is an intense tale of death and betrayal that shows us how undeniably the ghosts of the past remain with us, and how resolutely they refuse to be quieted. ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Lloyd James. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/blak/011581/bk_blak_011581_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  Meghan: A Hollywood Princess , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 456min

  Contains an exclusive Q&A with the author, Andrew Morton. The first in-depth biography of the American actress and humanitarian campaigner who will marry Prince Harry in May 2018, written by the world's best-known royal biographer. When Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were set up by a mutual friend on a blind date in June 2016, little could they know that just 16 months later the resulting whirlwind romance would lead to their engagement in November 2017 and marriage in May 2018. Since then, our fascination with the woman who has smashed the royal mould has rocketed. So different to those coy brides of recent history, Meghan is confident, charismatic and poised, her warm and affectionate engagement interview a stark contrast to the stilted and cold exchange between Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer. In this first-ever biography of the duchess-to-be, acclaimed royal biographer Andrew Morton goes back to Meghan's roots, interviewing those closest to her to uncover the story of her childhood: growing up in The Valley in LA, studying at an all-girls Catholic school and her breakout into acting. We also delve into her previous marriage and divorce in 2013, her struggles in Hollywood, as her mixed heritage was time and again used against her, and her work as a humanitarian ambassador - so redolent of Princess Diana's passions. Finishing with an account of her romance with Prince Harry, Morton reflects on the impact that Meghan has already made on the rigid traditions of the House of Windsor - not even Kate Middleton was invited to Christmas with the Queen before she had married her prince - and what the future might hold. ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Andrew Morton, Charles Armstrong. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/momb/000003/bk_momb_000003_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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  Dinner with the Schnabels (eBook, ePUB)

  'I loved every page of this funny, warm, delightful novel!' LIANE MORIARTY'Dinner with the Schnabels is a contemporary comic masterpiece. Practically every page boasts lines redolent of humour, wit and sarcasm that will make you snigger if not laugh out loud' ArtsHubYou can marry into them, but can you ever really be one of them?A novel about marriage, love and family.Things haven't gone well for Simon Larsen lately. He adores his wife, Tansy, and his children, but since his business failed and he lost the family home, he can't seem to get off the couch.His larger-than-life in-laws, the Schnabels - Tansy's mother, sister and brother - won't get off his case. To keep everyone happy, Simon needs to do one little job: he has a week to landscape a friend's backyard for an important Schnabel family event.But as the week progresses, Simon is derailed by the arrival of an unexpected house guest. Then he discovers Tansy is harbouring a secret. As his world spins out of control, who can Simon really count on when the chips are down?Life with the Schnabels is messy, chaotic and joyful, and Dinner with the Schnabels is as heartwarming as it is outrageously funny.Praise for Dinner with the Schnabels:'Hilarious' The Bookshelf (ABC Radio)'Told with great humour and pathos. It is a tonic and a delight.' PIP WILLIAMS, author of The Dictionary of Lost Words'Toni Jordan at her finest - brilliantly observed and highly entertaining. I inhaled her words then snorted them out laughing!' JOANNA NELL'Smart, tender, wise and hilarious. This is a dinner I didn't want to leave.' KATHRYN HEYMANPraise for Toni Jordan:'Laugh-out-loud funny' The Australian Women's Weekly'Crisp and clever' Saturday Paper'A moving comedy' Who Weekly'An emotionally rich domestic drama' The Australian'Pitch-perfect blend of intelligence, compassion and humour' The Guardian

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  New Retro Illustrations

  This book bearing the title of "New Retro" is a collection of illustrations by artists whose style is inspired primarily by the manga comics and anime of the 1980s and '90s. With its distinctive vivid neons, and pale pastel hues, theirs is a style that is easy to spot. Other clues are lightly drawn lines, the design qualities of the hand-drawn lettering, and motion lines, all stemming from shoujo (girls') and seinen (men's) manga. The artists' choice of motifs is another delight: locations, and clothing for their characters, redolent of the Showa era, or recalling the heady years of the "bubble" economy. Experimenting with this style has been especially noticeable since the 2010s. It is clearly distinguishable from the computer-game-like design, and bishoujo anime featuring cute young girls, that gained popularity from 2000 onward as "otaku" style. That is to say, it references an earlier time. Retro crazes that revive styles and formats from the past occur frequently, and are fundamentally based on nostalgia, i.e. a yearning or admiration for a long-gone era. Yet this "New Retro" is somewhat different in aspect. Obviously, the artists in question do each harbor a certain fondness for the past. Was Japan really a place of such excess in the bubble era, the later Showa years? These artists bring to life in their pictures what is now virtually the stuff of legend. Yet among all the decorative delights, they deliberately mix in other elements, things that were not there in the past, strictly speaking were suppressed, whether that be a certain sort of eroticism, violence, psychological freedom...or apathy. First and foremost though, they are simply cherry-picking agreeable bits from the archives, so to speak, in a trend unmistakably connected with the now standard use of the likes of pixel art and synthwave in the gaming world. The late Showa and bubble years have become objectified, allowing artists to make choices with a neutral mindset, their options widened by the scope and spread of the internet. This style is now moving beyond a boom to become properly established, which suggests there is more to it than mere generational nostalgia. And therein lies the significance of the "New" Retro. Sayawaka Critic / author of manga

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  Lamentations of Jeremiah I & II

  These most redolent of Tudor choral masterpieces here receive worthy performances of surpassing beauty.

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  Meditations with Torrey Hall/Classics & Hymns for

  TRACK ONE Clair de Lune is the third movement of Debussy's Suite bergamasque or collection of dances, written in 1890 and published in 1905. It's meaning is "moonlight", though Debussy originally titled it Promenade Sentimentale. Paul Verlaine's poetry, namely "Poems saturniens" influenced the creative process of Debussy in the composition's revision and name change. With vivid colors Mr. Hall recreates with a dazzling display of artistry, the shimmering reflective qualities of orange moonlight cascading through night-time clouds against a backdrop of blackened outer-space, exuding a dreamy and ethereal effect. The light touch and full round tones are reminiscent of Horowitz. TRACK TWO In 1827 Franz Schubert wrote the Opus 90 series of Impromptus, and here for us now, Mr. Hall performs the Opus 90 Number 3 in G flat major. The work is viewed as a variations on a theme, written in a pattern utilized by Beethoven in structure and form. The strong and compelling melody line ushers the listener through a series of ornamental passageways and finally resolving the journey on the other side. Again, the artist displays a commanding gentleness of touch, subtly threading the lines through the needles of structure and dynamic shadings. The colors he paints are a sheer joy to see and behold! TRACK THREE Mr. Hall performs the Andante, the second movement of Mozart's Piano Sonata No 5 K283, written in 1774 during a visit to Munich for the production of his La finta giardiniera. Performing Mozart's piano literature has often been described by artists as akin to a trapeze artist walking the high tight wire in the buff (naked), meaning, "everything shows". The literature is best played by both children, and the most mature keyboard artists. Children find the playfulness in it, and artists recreate that playfulness. All other students of the piano make it sound too much like work! Listen to the subtle use of rubato in Mr. Hall's rendition on this recording, he refuses to give-in to the tilting temptation to play in strict tempo aka metronome. Rubato is rarely used by most performing pianists, due to a lack of understanding it's use. We think Mr. Hall understands it quite well, in fact! TRACK FOUR The piano music of Franz Liszt holds the affections of classical music lovers everywhere. His later music was the result of his personal losses and grief, a creative response to crushing sorrows. CONSOLATION Number #3, is a great example, which Mr. Hall plays with great emotion and color, providing a window into the great composer's heart. Here the artist's own bond with the melancholy is exposed as well. Liszt once told a friend "I carry with me a deep sadness of the heart which must now and then break out in sound." The deaths of his children so close together (Daniel, 1859 and Blandine, 1862) accelerated the rush of heartache upon his soul, and hence, years later, the deaths of friends, colleagues, and note-worthies continued to press the darkness upon him. Desolation, despair and death seemed to be his companions in life, and thus, his work CONSOLATION Number #3, like so much of his piano literature, takes his grief to a level of high art, and in which, as has been said, "a troubled spirit seeks consolation in memories of the past." TRACK FIVE Who among us has not heard those treasured words sung by many, written down so long ago, yet which still speak to the heart! "In the sweet by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore." This loved Civil War era hymn, was the result of a brief conversaton which took place between the composer and the lyricist. The former was described by the latter, as having the "melancholy", and so, being his friend, he attempted to raise his spirits by challenging him to compose a new song! The musician, a violinist by the name of Webster, was standing alongside a woodstove when the conversation took place, resulting in this beloved hymn. Bennett, the lyricist (1836 - 1898) asked him "Webster, what is the matter now?!", to which the musician answered dryly "no matter", then adding quietly "it will be alright by and by..........", His comment brought a flash of sunlight to Bennett's mind, who replied "the sweet by and by.......", and it was at that point, that Bennett penned the words, handing them to the musician moments later to read himself. The violinist picked up his instrument and immediately began playing a melody to the words his friend had just written. Thus, in the space of a half-hour, this hymn tune, which has found it's place in American folk music, raised to a higher prominence than that of Stephen Foster, was born! Mr. Hall plays this using nothing but two fingers, one on each hand, the result of his own musical genius! This hymn, like the others on the album, is solely Mr. Hall's own arrangement, and is played as simply as possible, so as to not distract from the message of the hymn. If this doesn't reach your soul, nothing will. TRACK SIX This Nocturne was written by the French composer Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963), who was without doubt, the most recent composer whose music is performed by Mr. Hall. The term "nocturne", from the Latin "nocturnus", refers to a musical composition that is inspired and redolent of the night. The great Polish composer Chopin wrote many nocturnes, and perhaps, almost without question, it seems to be a characteristic of both composers and musicians, to be "night owls". It is no secret that Poulenc's personal life was a paradox, full of conflicts and contradictions. Raised in the Roman Catholic Church, he attempted to walk the fence between homosexuality and doctrinal orthodoxy, which flew in the face of his scriptural and theological injunctions. It would appear he chose the former over the latter, if his comment to a friend was taken literally: 'You know that I am as sincere in my faith, without any messianic screamings, as I am in my Parisian sexuality.' (At one point, Poulenc planned to marry a young woman by the name of Raymonde Linossier, but whose sudden death removed all possibilities). Though he never acknowledged it publically, it is believed that he fathered a daughter (Marie-Ange), whose mother ('Freddy') was the dedicatee of two of his works. Nocturne Number #1, performed by Hall, is deceptive in it's simpleness of harmony and melody line, as it requires a certain keyboard technical prowess not possessed by amateur pianists or students. The work includes hair-pin turns for the driver (pianist), without slowing down (maintaining the same speed rounding the corners as driving along the straight stretches). Mr. Hall plays this nocturne at a brisk but steady pace of tempo, holding the melody line in high relief, while shading abrupt passages dynamically aka pianissimos and fortes. As with most of Poulenc's piano literature, this Nocturne Number #1 requires the pianist to have a master's control over finger movement and weight, resulting in quick turns without smearing the colors in this beautiful musical painting. TRACK SEVEN Written in 1929 (published in '32) by Albert Brumley, the song I'LL FLY AWAY was in part, the result of influences (as with other hymn tunes) by an earlier secular ballad. This song holds the bragging rights to 'the most recorded gospel song', and is sung by millions, crossing denominational lines but all within the boundaries of Christiandom. The tune has become part of American folk music, and is often performed or sung at bluegrass music events, and of course, many funerals, given it's message of hope beyond the grave. The whole idea for the song came to the composer, while working on his father's cotton farm in Oklahoma one day. To help pass the hours of work, he began singing the words to a popular ballad.....'if I had the wings of an angel, over these prison walls I would fly.....', It immediately came to him that the seed for growing a great musical crop (gospel song) was found, and he would plant it! It was three years later, that the song was completed, with

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